Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Structural Context (structural + context)
Selected AbstractsThe structural context of recent transitions to democracyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2004RENSKE DOORENSPLEET An analysis of the influence of these structural factors is however important, and it has not yet been done in a systematic way in order to explain recent transitions to democracy since 1989. It will be shown that some structural factors indeed play a role in generating transitions to democracy. These results contradict the idea that structural factors can be ignored when explaining recent transitions to democracy. An additional finding in this article is that some structural factors, such as economic development, growth and a country's role in the world-system had an unexpected impact on democratic transitions since the end of the Cold War. These findings set bounds to the strength of the modernization and world-system theories to explain transitions to democracy, but on the other hand, democratic diffusion played a significant role after 1989. In the (structural) context in which a state had a peripheral role, a low level of economic growth and a high proportion of democratic neighbors, the probability of a state's transition to democracy was high. This structural context seemed to be fertile soil for recent transitions to democracy. [source] Analysis of the 2002 May earthquake sequence in the central Pyrenees, consequences for the evaluation of the seismic risk at Lourdes, FranceGEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2004Noalwenn Dubos SUMMARY Three earthquakes of magnitudes 4.6, 4.3 and 3.7 occurred in 2002 May at two locations 20 km from the pilgrimage city of Lourdes in the French Pyrenees. They were well recorded by the permanent Pyrenean seismic networks, by a temporary local network, as well as by accelerometric stations. In order to understand their tectonic contexts, and to come to a better evaluation of the seismic risk at Lourdes, a detailed analysis of these events is performed. The first two events are located south of Lourdes in an area where only a few earthquakes have occurred up to now. Their focal solutions derived from first-motion polarities indicate reverse faulting, with a N110°E strike consistent with the geological structures. 10 aftershocks were recorded and relocated with respect to the main events, benefiting from the waveform similarity of the various events. This analysis reveals that the two main events concern probably the same fault, the second rupture being in the prolongation of the first one, whereas the other small aftershocks are located on fault segments in the vicinity of the hypocentre of the second event. The third large event, located to the SE of Lourdes, involves a normal mechanism with a N120°E plane parallel to the main geological structures. It occurred in a region of intense activity, including in particular an event of maximum macroseismic intensity IX in 1660. The first two events are at the boundary of a large quiet zone. In order to understand the related structural context, a new crustal tomographic model has been computed. It reveals that this quiet zone coincides with a block of high P -velocity. In contrast, the seismicity appears to be stronger at the northern and eastern boundaries of this block. The accelerometric data of the three main events recorded at Lourdes have been used to estimate the maximum peak ground accelerations in this city if a large event occurred, similar to those which damaged the city in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Horizontal accelerations of 0.25 ± 0.07 g are predicted in the frequency domain 1,5 Hz at the location of the Sanctuary for a magnitude 6 event occurring 10 km away from the city. Taking into account the error bars, these values could in some cases exceed those specified by the building codes in this region. [source] The Evolution of Indian Industrial Relations: A Comparative PerspectiveINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001Debashish Bhattacherjee This article examines the evolution of Indian industrial relations in an historical and structural context. In India, the evolution of industrial relations has been ,incremental' and ,adaptive' and not ,discontinuous' and ,revolutionary'. The relationship between changing industrialisation strategies and industrial relations institutions and practices in India is considerably more subtle than is often supposed in comparative industrial relations narratives, especially when detailed endogenous political economy considerations are taken into account. [source] A Realist Theory of HegemonyJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2000Jonathan Joseph A new approach to understanding hegemony is developed based on the method of critical realism. Breaking from the traditional interpretations that emphasise inter-subjective, superstructural and cultural aspects of hegemony, this article looks at hegemony's structural context and the conditions for its possibility. A realist conception of hegemony relates hegemonic projects to structural reproduction and transformation via Bhaskar's transformational model of social activity. In doing so this model is itself modified to incorporate hegemony as the political moment of social reproduction. A distinction is made between hegemony in its structural aspect, and specific hegemonic projects as emergent possibilities. [source] An in silico method using an epitope motif database for predicting the location of antigenic determinants on proteins in a structural contextJOURNAL OF MOLECULAR RECOGNITION, Issue 1 2006Vincent Batori Abstract Presently X-ray crystallography of protein,antibody complexes is still the most direct way of identifying B-cell epitopes. The objective of this study was to assess the potential of a computer-based epitope mapping tool (EMT) using antigenic amino acid motifs as a fast alternative in a number of applications not requiring detailed information, e.g. development of pharmaceutical proteins, vaccines and industrial enzymes. Using Gal d 4 as a model protein, the EMT was capable of identifying, in the context of the folded protein, amino acid positions known to be involved in antibody binding. The high sensitivity and positive predictive value of the EMT as well as the relevance of the structural associations suggested by the EMT indicated the existence of amino acid motifs that are likely to be involved in antigenic determinants. In addition, differential mapping revealed that sensitivity and positive predictive value were dependent on the minimum relative surface accessibility (RSA) of the amino acids included in the mapping, demonstrating that the EMTs accommodated for the fact that epitopes are three-dimensional entities with various degrees of accessibility. The comparison with existing prediction scales demonstrated the superiority of the EMT with respect to physico-chemical scales. The mapping tool also performed better than the available structural scales, but the significance of the differences remains to be established. Thus, the EMT has the potential of becoming a fast and simple alternative to X-ray crystallography for predicting structural antigenic determinants, if detailed epitope information is not required. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The structural view of bacterial translocation-specific chaperone SecB: implications for functionMOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2005Jiahai Zhou Summary SecB is a molecular chaperone that functions in bacterial post-translational protein translocation pathway. It maintains newly synthesized precursor polypeptide chains in a translocation-competent state and guides them to the translocon via its high-affinity binding to the ligand as well as to the membrane-embedded ATPase SecA. Recent advances in elucidating the structures of SecB have enabled the examination of protein function in the structural context. Structures of SecB from both Haemophilus influenzae and Escherichia coli support the early two-subsite polypeptide-binding model. In addition, the detailed molecular interaction between SecB and SecA was revealed by a structure of SecB in complex with the C-terminal zinc-containing domain of SecA. These observations explain the dual role of SecB plays in the translocation pathway, as a molecular chaperone and a specific targeting factor. A model of SecB,SecA complex suggests that the binding of SecA to SecB changes the conformation of the polypeptide binding sites in the chaperone, enabling transfer of precursor polypeptides from SecB to SecA. Recent studies also show the presence of a second zinc-independent SecB binding site in SecA and the new interaction might contribute to the function of SecB. [source] Linked Lives: Stability and Change in Maternal Circumstances and Trajectories of Antisocial Behavior in ChildrenCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2004Ross Macmillan Drawing on the notion of linked lives, this study examined the effects of stability and change in maternal circumstance on developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior in children 4 to 7 years of age. Using data from a national sample of young mothers and growth curve analysis, the study demonstrated that early maternal circumstances influences early antisocial behavior, whereas stability and change in these circumstances both exacerbate and ameliorate behavior problems. Of particular note, meaningful escape from poverty attenuates antisocial behavior whereas persistence in poverty or long-term movement into poverty intensifies such problems. These findings highlight the importance of structural context for parenting practices and the need to consider child development in light of dynamic and changing life-course fortunes of parents. [source] | ||||||||||